Lab scientists are developing new ways to see the unseen. Seven imaging advances, including two from the Biosciences Area, are helping to push science forward, from developing better batteries to peering inside cells to exploring the nature of the universe. The animation on the left shows a 3-D journey inside the center of cells, recently described in Cell Reports by scientists in the National Center for X-ray Tomography at the Advanced Light Source. These techniques were previously reported in the Berkeley Lab News Center and have been compiled into this listicle.
Finding Diamonds in the Rough
New crystallography finding by JBEI and GLBRC benefits bioenergy industry
During the kraft process used to convert wood into wood pulp, the structural material lignin is partially converted into molecules like stilbene. Stilbenes are also naturally occurring in plants and some bacteria, and may play a role in plant pathogen resistance.
Currently, the deconstruction of plant biomass into cellulose and lignin is an expensive process. Lignin accounts for about 30 percent of plant cell wall carbon, and its conversion into chemicals or fuels could have a significant positive impact on the economics of processing lignocellulosic biomass. Enzymes capable of producing useful compounds from the breakdown of stilbenes and similar molecules could be employed for this. Collaborators from two of the Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers now have gained first-hand insight into how a stilbene cleaving oxygenase (SCO) carries out this unusual chemical reaction.
Ke Xu Awarded 2016 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
Ke Xu, chemist faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, is a recipient of a 2016 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He was awarded $875K over five years for the development of tools to interrogate biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution and sensitivity.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation named 18 of the nation’s most innovative early-career scientists and engineers as recipients of the 2016 fellowships. The foundation established the fellowships program in 1988 to provide early-career scientists with flexible funding and the freedom to take risks and explore new frontiers in their fields.
Genes, Early Environment Sculpt the Gut Microbiome
Researchers from Berkeley Lab’s Biological Systems & Engineering (BSE) Division and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that genes and early environment play big roles in shaping the gut microbiome. The microbes retained a clear “signature” formed where the mice were first raised, and the characteristics carried over to the next generation. The findings, published on November 28 in the journal Nature Microbiology, could potentially be used to develop designer diets optimized to an individual’s microbiome.
The BSE research team included first author Antoine Snijders, corresponding author Jian-Hua Mao, and Sasha Langley. Read more on the Berkeley Lab News Center.
JBEI’s Henrik Scheller Awarded 2016 Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang Prize
The award acknowledges JBEI’s VP of Feedstocks for his achievements in enzyme identification and characterization involved in synthesis and modification of the plant cell wall.
Carlsberg Foundation and the Carlsberg Research Laboratory hosted its annual awards celebration on November 29. A record number of four awards were handed out this year to commemorate the Laboratory’s 140th anniversary. The Carlsberg Forum series reflects the strong link between science and business. Each year, the Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang awards are given to prominent scientists for their achievements within biochemistry or physiology, the fields of science in which Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang, a professor at Carlsberg Research Laboratory in the period 1939-1959, distinguished himself as a pioneer.
This year, Professor Henrik V. Scheller, Vice President of Feedstocks at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (Berkeley Lab) and Professor Geoff Fincher, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine, The University of Adelaide, Australia received this year’s Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang Prize as an acknowledgement of their outstanding achievements on identifying and characterizing enzymes involved in synthesis and modification of the plant cell wall. The prize is a plated gold medal and a financial personal award of DKK 40.000.
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